A Novel Dual Non-Invasive Ventilator Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Non-Aerosolization Circuit for Emergency Use in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health emergency of unprecedented scale. The surge in clinical cases of patients with severe respiratory illness has overwhelmed the traditional capacity of healthcare systems worldwide. Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) delivered through Non-Invasive Ventilation (NIV) has been shown to be useful in caring for patients with COVID-19. In particular patients with early stage milder acute hypoxemic respiratory failure can benefit from NIV CPAP therapy, though there is an acknowledged risk of COVID-19 aerosolization with traditional circuit use. Furthermore, given the surge in clinical care demand, there is an acute global shortage of ventilators, including NIV devices and therefore innovative methods are needed to increase NIV capacity and ameliorate infectious aerosolization. This paper outlines an emergency use modified dual NIV CPAP Circuit that uses a 3D printed splitter designed to work with traditional international NIV CPAP tubing standards and a 3D printed respiratory face mask knuckle to allow for distal expiratory breath exhalation through a viral filter rather than through an open to air proximal valve, which is the traditional NIV CPAP configuration. We expect that this work will increase global NIV CPAP capacity and ameliorate aerosolization of COVID-19 in patients undergoing therapy in an emergency scenario.

Keywords

• covid-19
• niv
• 3d printing
• ventilation
• aerosolization
• respiratory